SRINAGAR, July 6: The fate of the four abducted foreign tourists was still not known even as security forces launched a massive combing operation in the Kashmir Valley to trace them out and the militants responsible for their abduction, reports PTI.

Elsewhere in the valley. 22 persons. including 15 militants, were killed, 32 militants arrested and a woman teacher was abducted since last evening, an official spokesman said here today.

He said the security forces sealed a vast area of Palialgam, including ladder and surrounding forests, last night immediately on receipt of the information about the abduction of eight foreign nationals from Udder Pahalgam, some 98 km from here in South Kashmir.

No breakthrough had been achieved so far, he said

Eight foreign tourists were abducted on Tuesday evening by a group of 15 armed militants, some of them mercenaries, belonging to the ' newly floated "AI • Narann" militant outfit from Bakh liddarv near Aroo, ten km away from Pahalgam health resort, he said